I built an AI pricing app for my thrifting wife
Hey IH! 👋
My wife runs a reselling business – thrift stores, estate sales, flea markets. She's good at finding stuff, but was spending hours every night researching prices on eBay before listing.
So I built her an app to get that time back.
## What it does
📸 Snap a photo of any item
🤖 AI identifies it (brand, model, era, maker)
💰 Pulls recent sold prices from eBay
📝 Generates optimized listings you can publish directly
## The "Quick Scan" feature
This is the killer use case – you're at a thrift store, see something interesting, snap a photo, and get a price in seconds. Buy with confidence, skip the duds.
## Tech stack
- Next.js (frontend + API)
- Claude API for vision and analysis
- eBay API for real market data
- Vercel for hosting
## Current status
- Launched a few weeks ago
- Building in public
- Free tier available (5 scans/month)
- Paid plans for serious resellers
## What I'd love feedback on
1. Pricing – is $9/mo for 50 scans reasonable?
2. What other marketplaces should I add? (Etsy is next)
3. Any resellers here? What features would make this a must-have?
Check it out: https://underpricedai.com
Happy to answer any questions about the build or the reselling niche!
Isn't this just the copycat of Underpriced .App?
We are Underpriced AI — built this from scratch and own the trademark. The app started from my wife's frustration reselling items and leaving money on the table. Been building it for months with Claude for vision/identification and eBay API integration for real-time market pricing. Not sure what you're referring to, but no copycat here.
Congrats on the launch, looks solid. What channels are you experimenting with to get early users?
Thanks! Channels so far:
1. Reddit - r/flipping, r/ebay, r/thriftstorehauls. Resellers hang out there and are very engaged. Comment genuinely, don't spam.
2. SEO (long game) - Just launched a blog targeting "how to price thrift store finds" type queries. Too early to see results but planting seeds.
3. This community - IH and HN have been great for early feedback and a few signups.
4. Word of mouth - Built a referral program (give 3 scans, get 3 scans). Resellers talk to each other at estate sales and flea markets.
Biggest learning: timing matters. Resellers are weekend warriors - engagement spikes Fri-Sun. So I time emails and posts for Friday afternoon.
What's worked for you?
That’s a solid mix, especially with the community-first approach and the timing around Friday to Sunday. The insight about the weekend is smart and often overlooked.
In similar niches, I’ve observed that discussion-style posts tend to perform well during those peak times. Topics like questions, pricing debates, and workflows often spark organic engagement and referrals over time, rather than direct promotion.
As you continue to test different channels, are you planning to focus more on any specific one, or will you mainly let them run in parallel for now?
Great point about discussion-style posts - that matches what I've seen too. The posts that ask genuine questions ("how do you price items?" or "what's your research process?") consistently outperform anything that feels like an announcement.
For channel focus, I'm running them in parallel for now but tracking which ones actually drive signups vs just engagement. Earl signals:
- Facebook reseller groups have the most direct conversions because the audience is already buying/selling daily. But group rules vary and reach is unpredictable.
- Indie Hackers is great for feedback and connecting with other builders, but the audience isn't my end user.
- LinkedIn drives the most "credibility" traffic - people who check out the site but don't necessarily sign up immediately.
- Hacker News is feast or famine. One good post can drive more traffic than a month of everything else combined.
My plan is to keep all four running for another 4-6 weeks, then double down on whichever channel has the best signup-to-paid ratio, not just traffic. A channel that sends 50 visitors who convert is worth more than one that sends 500 who bounce.
The discussion-first approach you mentioned is definitely the move though. I'm shifting toward asking questions and sharing specific lessons rather than "hey check out my tool" posts. People engage with problems, not products.
This is a mature perspective on early growth, particularly the emphasis on the sign-up-to-paid ratio rather than just focusing on raw traffic. Many teams overlook this and waste time chasing irrelevant noise.
In reseller-style markets, I've noticed that Reddit and Facebook groups are most effective when treated less as "channels" and more as indicators of intent. The posts that lead to conversions aren't necessarily the ones with the highest upvotes; rather, they are those where users express uncertainty about pricing or anxiety about their decision in the comments.
At this stage, it can be beneficial to narrow down Reddit discussions to a small set of repeatable formats, such as “Would you buy this at $X?”, “How would you compare this?”, or “What would make this a no-brainer purchase?”. Engaging consistently during the Friday to Sunday time frame that you mentioned helps build recognition and trust without needing promotional posts.
If you're interested, I can assist you in creating a simple Reddit test plan, identifying which threads to prioritize, what to look for in comments that indicate buyer intent, and how to discreetly track which discussions lead to sign-ups. No pressure; I'm just happy to share what has worked for similar products.